For those that are interested, here is the link to my pictures. I've uploaded pictures from the adventurous Inauguration week, my recon trip to Puerto Rico, as well as older photos from my trip to Namibia last October. When you have a few minutes, enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/hotarded
Saturday, January 24, 2009
inuaguration high
My toes feel funny, my feet still hurt and at this point, I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever fully recover from this amazing week. Physically I hope I do, emotionally I hope it stays with me forever. I’ve been in DC for almost 2 weeks now and the vibe is incredible still. I worked the Presidential Inaugural Conference with 800 other staff members, watching out for and facilitating activities for 15,000 high achieving scholars. That’s right, I said fifteen thousand! A highly ambitious number considering the biggest conference they’ve ever put on was for 2,000 students. It was chaos and crazy most of the time, not to say a little bit unorganized but that’s not what I’m here to go on and on about. I was apart of the inauguration festivities!! Not only did I get to go to the opening celebration concert and the actual inauguration, I also got to hear Colin Powell and Al Gore speak. It was all part of the conference activities. While discussing with the students what they thought of the two speakers, the general consensus was that Al Gore was a little boring (which isn’t a surprising observation) and Colin Powell was inspiring. I won’t argue with that – Colin Powell was amazing but I was still happy to hear from Al Gore, even it he’s not the most dynamic speaker out there. There were also smaller sessions with Mary Matalin and James Carville as well as Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, but I only got to hear Mary & James.
The best part of course was the actual Inauguration. There were a lot of students that were really upset because they thought we were going to have actual tickets. No dice but that didn’t bother me at all – who cares when just being there apart of this amazing historical event was enough. In order to ensure that we could get good spots, a group of us left at 4:30 am – it was advised that we walk instead of take the metro. Good advice and a great way to keep us toasty for the early morning 20 degree weather. Our hotel was about 2.5 miles away and we were able to get good spots fairly close to the Capital building, which we found at around 5:30 am. We then proceeded to stand and freeze for the next 6 hours until the ceremony actually started. We were told that you couldn’t bring bags or food onto the mall, so we didn’t. Evidently, those instructions were for the ticketed areas only and we could have brought blankets and whatever we wanted! We toughed it out and when the ceremony was over, started the trek back to the hotel. That was an adventure in itself as we kept having to double back and find a route that actually led us across Independence Ave and around the parade route which was blocked off at that point. We figured it out eventually and made it back to the hotel by 3:30pm. Needless to say we were exhausted from being on our feet for 11 hours and starving since we had consisted on only a few granola bars, mini Snickers and a mini bottle of water that I rationed with my new friends Scotty and Alan. All of this made the day adventurous but to hear Barack Obama give his speech once he was sworn in as the President just made the day what it was – historical and amazing. Bearing witness to a peaceful transition of power and knowing that my country elected this man that is bringing about change in so many good ways, it really does make me proud to say I’m from America.
I’m still on a high and recovering from all the amazing events – we had a gala that evening for our students at the Air and Space Museum (sans alcohol since we had underage students) and then some friends and I decided to continue the celebration and take advantage of the bars that stayed open till 4 am that night. Eric and I rallied, stayed up till our 5 am shift and showed up wearing our formal wear. Although I won’t lie, by 7:30 am I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Seriously, I was nodding off the second my eyes blinked! The students left the following day and we had another fun filled night at the Hirshorn Museum where our staff party was held – open bar! It was a great way to end the crazy conference week and celebrate with all the new friends that I made. We went out with a bang, no doubt about it. It will be a long time before I wear 3 inch heels again – my poor toes are still recovering!
The best part of course was the actual Inauguration. There were a lot of students that were really upset because they thought we were going to have actual tickets. No dice but that didn’t bother me at all – who cares when just being there apart of this amazing historical event was enough. In order to ensure that we could get good spots, a group of us left at 4:30 am – it was advised that we walk instead of take the metro. Good advice and a great way to keep us toasty for the early morning 20 degree weather. Our hotel was about 2.5 miles away and we were able to get good spots fairly close to the Capital building, which we found at around 5:30 am. We then proceeded to stand and freeze for the next 6 hours until the ceremony actually started. We were told that you couldn’t bring bags or food onto the mall, so we didn’t. Evidently, those instructions were for the ticketed areas only and we could have brought blankets and whatever we wanted! We toughed it out and when the ceremony was over, started the trek back to the hotel. That was an adventure in itself as we kept having to double back and find a route that actually led us across Independence Ave and around the parade route which was blocked off at that point. We figured it out eventually and made it back to the hotel by 3:30pm. Needless to say we were exhausted from being on our feet for 11 hours and starving since we had consisted on only a few granola bars, mini Snickers and a mini bottle of water that I rationed with my new friends Scotty and Alan. All of this made the day adventurous but to hear Barack Obama give his speech once he was sworn in as the President just made the day what it was – historical and amazing. Bearing witness to a peaceful transition of power and knowing that my country elected this man that is bringing about change in so many good ways, it really does make me proud to say I’m from America.
I’m still on a high and recovering from all the amazing events – we had a gala that evening for our students at the Air and Space Museum (sans alcohol since we had underage students) and then some friends and I decided to continue the celebration and take advantage of the bars that stayed open till 4 am that night. Eric and I rallied, stayed up till our 5 am shift and showed up wearing our formal wear. Although I won’t lie, by 7:30 am I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Seriously, I was nodding off the second my eyes blinked! The students left the following day and we had another fun filled night at the Hirshorn Museum where our staff party was held – open bar! It was a great way to end the crazy conference week and celebrate with all the new friends that I made. We went out with a bang, no doubt about it. It will be a long time before I wear 3 inch heels again – my poor toes are still recovering!
Monday, November 3, 2008
vote!
this was sent to me in an email from my aunt - thought I'd share on the eve of election day. People, get out and vote!
"This is to help all us see how racism works:
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain was still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?
What if Obama was the candidate who was unfaithful and left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama was a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five)
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama’s son helped manage a bank into oblivion?
What if McCain had two lovely young girls?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
You are The Boss... which team would you hire?
With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc.
Educational Background:
Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
vs.
McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
Now, which team are you going to hire ?
PS: What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter...."
"This is to help all us see how racism works:
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain was still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?
What if Obama was the candidate who was unfaithful and left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama was a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five)
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama’s son helped manage a bank into oblivion?
What if McCain had two lovely young girls?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
You are The Boss... which team would you hire?
With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc.
Educational Background:
Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
vs.
McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
Now, which team are you going to hire ?
PS: What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter...."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
have some catching up to do...
Well it's been awhile sad to say but for good reason - I have been living it up post peace corps by traveling to Namibia with my PC friend Kristen and her younger sister Lindsey, who strangely enough has the exact same b-day as Katie and was born the same year - so it was like having Katie around only Lindsey is blond and she got us hooked on the "that's what she said" theme of the trip. There are tons of stories and I won't pretend to go into them all right now - I've only just returned and am sitting at an internet cafe in cape town with only a few more minutes before my time expires (or Kristen, she likes to go to bed early). So don't give up on me friends and family - I'll be sharing a few key stories in the next week while I'm hanging out at Jason's place before I head back to the states on 23 Oct.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
my home
It’s so close but it doesn’t even seem real. There is still so much stuff in my little house that I can’t really believe I’m leaving in just 2 short days. I’ve packed a lot of my things but then there are things that I’m giving away. I think it would be sad if my room was too bare. It makes me think of the first night I got to this place – the day we were sworn in as volunteers. I had no idea what to expect because when I had come for a visit a few weeks earlier, I had stayed somewhere different that didn’t end up working out. The night we showed up to Annah’s house, it was chaotic with the greetings and my mom called as I arrived, adding to the craziness and I think Jason called too. When they showed me the room it was so empty it even echoed a bit like a new house does. I had all the essentials like the wardrobe, single bed, table & chair and I was even lucky enough to have a bookcase, comfy chair, stove/oven and a refrigerator but it had that unlived in feeling. But I was so happy to have my own room, outside of the main house, with electricity – I had a huge smile on my face as I went to sleep that night. At that time I only had 2 bags so I didn’t quite fill out the room. It’s amazing how much stuff (crap?) I can accumulate in 2 years! The space has definitely evolved to become my home, my little safe haven away from world; A place that I could tuck into to escape the constant attention and the expectations. Eventually I got a bigger bed and a desk and although the space was limited, I made it work.
I love the bookcase and all the books and movies that I would stare at deciding which was next. And I love the bed too. Carol (my host sister) let me use it for a few months back when my mom first came for a visit. Then I asked if I could just use it for the rest of my time (otherwise it would just in sit in the house unused). We struck a compromise and I paid her R50 a month to essentially rent the bed. The mini comfy chair was also great, most of my time in my room was spent sitting there either reading, watching a movie, eating, or just playing on my computer.
My wardrobe was a pain because it didn’t have space to hang anything, only shelves and for the longest time it had a broken door. But it worked and hid the ridiculous amounts of toiletries that I have.
My kitchen corner/bathroom/storage area was essential to my survival but mostly used to make simple, if not sub par, meals and of course bathe.
But now it’s time to neatly fold all these memories up and move on to the next exciting adventures. I’ve only a few things left to pack and a few more goodbyes to give and then I’m on my way.
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